


Ready to Run

by Lostinfantasy



Series: They don't know about us [3]
Category: One Direction
Genre: Bisexual Character, Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen, Harry Styles & Louis Tomlinson Friendship, M/M, Niall Horan & Liam Payne Friendship, On the Road Again Tour, Pansexual Character, Past Eleanor Calder/Louis Tomlinson, Past Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik & Liam Payne Friendship, otra, past sophia smith/liam payne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-29 21:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5142314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lostinfantasy/pseuds/Lostinfantasy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is insecure but not as insecure as everyone thinks he is and Liam is trying to hold it together and failing miserably.<br/>Or the one where everyone knows about Louis and Liam even though it was supposed to be a secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ready to Run

**Author's Note:**

> This in no way reflects any of the members of one directions or their real life interactions.

“I think we should call it quits for the day,” Liam announces. Louis agrees. They have been at this for hours and honestly, they have to be on stage in like an hour anyway and they’re probably going to send a car to pick them up soon. Louis’ expecting the call any minute now.

“What’s up with you?” Louis asks, truly curious about his friend’s odd behavior. He just looked so distant for the last few days and his lyrics, while definitely a stroke a genius, just seemed so loaded. He knows there has to be something up with Liam.

“Nothing,” Liam says immediately and it’s met with a look of disbelief from Louis because he’s not buying that bullshit. “Fine, Sophia and I broke up.”

“Wait, what? When?”

“A couple days. She called me, said something about it being hard dating someone who’s never around or something. Quite frankly, it really doesn’t matter.”

“How are you dealing with that?” Louis asks truly concerned for his friends.

“Kind of shitty right now, but that’s to be expected. Honestly I am dealing with it mostly. For the most part I’m okay though,” Liam says convincingly. Louis almost believes him except Louis has known Liam long enough to know that he doesn’t handle heartbreak this well.

“That’s bull and you fucking know it. I know you care otherwise you wouldn’t be sulking around.”

“Well I never said I didn’t care, I said quite the opposite actually and I’m not sulking. I am here writing with you, aren’t I?"

“You have that look on your face, though”

“What look?” Liam asks.

“The sulking look because you’re sulking. So either you tell me why you’re sulking or I’ll have to beat it out of you.”

“One, I’m not sulking and two, you already know why I’m upset, so how about you let this go already?” Liam says raising his voice, his tone becoming increasing more choleric with every word he says and Louis knows it’s time to let this go.

_______________________________

“I feel like we haven’t hung out in forever.”

“We haven’t and you know why. So why are we here anyway?” Harry says irritated.

“Why can’t I just want to hang out with one of my best friends in the world?”

“Because you haven’t wanted to hang out with me alone for over a year on account on the gay rumors.” Harry uses quotes around “gay rumors” for emphasis.

Louis had always thought it was a mutual decision to distance themselves from one another, especially after everything that went down during the X-factor but seeing now how visibly annoyed Harry is, Louis is starting to wonder. Maybe he was wrong for trying to distance himself from Harry. Maybe he was being selfish by wanting to get away from all the rumors even though Harry didn’t seem to care that much.

It’s not like any of it really mattered to Louis at the beginning either, but after getting together with Eleanor things kind of changed. It was just weird for her having all of these rumors surrounding her love life. And at first Louis tried to ignore it, but when it really got bad he had to start saying something. It’s not like it helped though, it kind of just made things worse and that’s pretty much when he stopped talking to Harry.

“It’s about Eleanor,” Louis concedes. Harry responds with a more compassionate look than he had on previously.

“What happened?”

“We broke up last night, she said some shit about how I’m in love with Liam and how she can’t do this anymore.”

“Well you are.” Harry states casually, “In love with Liam that is.”

“I am not in love with Liam.”

“Have you noticed that you run away from your problems a lot?”

“Okay and what does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing really, I was just making an observation. But while we’re on the subject of running away, you can’t run away from the fact that you are totally in love with Liam.”

“I am not running away from anything because I’m not in love with Liam.”

“You are so in love with Liam. Denying it isn’t going to change anything.” Harry says, seemingly taking great joy in it.

“Fine, maybe I am a little in love with Liam, but so what? It doesn’t change anything.”

“It most certainly does though because you’re single and he’s single and you guys should just go for it.” Harry seemingly waits for a response but when he is met with a blank stare he continues, “I understand that you’re probably insecure about what it is that you have going on with Liam but you kind of just have to go for it this time.”

“I’m not insecure and even if I was, none of this is on me. Whatever we have or don’t have going on is all Liam. He’s the reason we’ve never worked out in the past and if we’re going to work now it has to be on Liam’s terms.”

“Fine whatever,” he says as he casually sips his tea, “So Niall and I kissed last night.” Harry says casually, partially hoping to get a rise out of Louis but mostly he tells Louis this because he needed to tell someone.

“You what?” Louis asked curiously and a little mockingly.

“We kissed.”

“Oh so you and Niall, huh.” Louis says non-discreetly.

“Don’t jump to conclusions we aren’t anything.”

“Not yet at least,” Louis says snidely.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Harry and I kissed last night,” Niall announces as if it was supposed to be a big shock. Zayn casually looks up at him.

“I don’t understand why this is supposed to be a big deal, you two shag every other night,”

“That’s just like casual sex, I swear man this was something different, like it meant something.”

“I swear I’m the only straight person in this god damn band.” Zayn is beginning to wonder how in the hell he ended up in a band with four guys who are as queer as a rainbow.

“I’m straight,” Niall says, offended. Zayn just looks at him incredulously.

“No, you’re fucking not. You are literally shagging Harry every night.”

“It’s just bro sex.”

“Do you hear yourself? What the hell is bro sex? Also were you not just talking about kissing Harry and how it felt like it was something more? ”

“Okay fine you got me but what about Liam?”

“There is something going on between him and Louis, so no.”

“You got a point there too.”

“See I’m the only straight person in this band.”

\-----------------

"I was in love with Sophia. She was the one. I was going to marry her and now that's all up in flames. I should be more upset but I’m not. And you know why because I'm in love with someone else. "

"Yo man, so let's do a pros and con list, then," the blonde says excitedly. Liam can tell that Niall is trying to cheer him up and since Niall's go to plan of drinking a couple pints and fooling around had already failed, and had only succeeded in making Liam more depressed, he's resorting to his backup plan. The problem was Niall had never been good at backup plans. It wasn’t like Zayn where he could just come up with this fail safe plan on the go after everyone else's plan had fallen through. Or with Harry where his plans were so shit that there was no point. And he certainly didn't have the Louis "bullshit your way through some conjured up last minute hair brain scheme that in the end actually works" going for him. Literally Niall had a bank of 3 or 4 plans stored up, all which involved some kind of alcohol, and if those fell through he resorted to catering to base interest.

"Of what?"

"For Sophia and this other chick you're into."

"What would that accomplish? Sophia's gone and a pros and cons list isn’t going to help that."

"Just tell me about this person you're into? What are they like?"

"They're different, you know" Liam says, looking at Niall in search of validation. Niall just nods his head, "They have just that kind of vibe, this lust for life that is just so refreshing. Not exactly the tallest person. Has a real height complex come to think of it. They have the most beautiful blue eyes and this smile that lights up a room.

"That sounds a lot like Lou."

“Okay so maybe it Louis.” Liam concedes. 

“I knew it.” Niall triumphantly announces.

“What do you mean you knew it? Knew what?”

“About you and Louis, in fact we all kind of did.”

“There’s nothing going on between me and Louis.” Liam says, sounding just the tiniest bit confused.

“You just said you were in love with him.”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean anything is going on between us,” Liam says, less that convincingly.

“Drop the act, we all know something has been going on with you two since the x-factor.”

“How long have you guys known?”

“Well Zayn was the first to catch on, then Zayn accidently told me. Harry was the last to find out. Pretty much the whole team knows too.”

“I don’t believe this. How?”

“You two aren’t exactly subtle. But that doesn’t really matter, does it? You obviously came for advice, so I’ll give you some. Go after Louis. I don’t care how impractical you two seem just go after him.”

________________________________________________________________________________

He opens the door to find Liam standing there soaking wet, looking like a sad lost puppy. And somehow all he could think to say was "What the hell?"

"Louis Williams Tomlinson. I'm completely and utterly in love with you."

"That's nice but what the hell are you doing standing outside my door in the pouring rain?" He says, sounding almost like he’s reprimanding Liam.

“I need you to know I'm in love with you, thought it'd be a nice gesture like in those romantic comedies." Louis just looks quizzically at Liam standing there. Oh crap, he’s serious. Liam is actually serious about this.

"God, Liam, you really are a sap. You know your life is not a romantic comedy, right? Like we aren’t going to kiss in the rain and then live happily ever after.” Liam just looks disheartened and a little letdown, but he still has that pure genuine innocence about him, “Come in before you get pneumonia or something.”

Once soaking wet Liam is in the house and the door is shut tight and locked, ensuring that he won’t get any more of these surprises tonight. Louis runs upstairs to get dry clothes for Liam.A couple minutes later he comes down, holding some pants that he is almost sure he stole from Liam a couple of years ago and one of Harry’s shirt he left there ages ago.

“Here are some clothes for you to change into,” Liam takes the clothes without question, “Aren’t you supposed to be the sensible one? Yet you’re always doing the most stupid things.”

“What can I say, I’m a romantic.”

“This isn’t romantic, it’s stupid. Love isn’t going to save you when you have pneumonia.”

“Do you have somewhere for me to change?” Louis gives Liam a look of confusion. Liam legitimately knows his house better than he does. So why does Liam sound so timid like this is his first time here?

“Dude I’ve seen you naked before, there’s nothing that I haven’t seen already. But if you insist you know where the bathroom is.”

Liam just shrugs and starts changing his clothes right there and then. Liam’s clothes are on and off so quickly that if Louis wasn’t paying attention he wouldn’t have known it happened.

“What’s with you?” Louis asks frankly because although Liam is a little stupid sometimes, he’s never this foolish. There’s got to be something going on with him and Louis is determined to figure out what it is.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re impetuous, nervous, and insecure. To be honest, you kind of seem a little like me. What’s gotten into you?"

“Nothing. I just. I don’t know. It’s kinda just weird, really weird actually… Like you and I, we’re this thing, but not really and it’s been that way for a while. Every once in a while something happens and I think maybe we’ll be more and then that goes quickly, but the thing is I kind of want us to be more.” Liam falters through the entirety of it.

“I've never seen you this flustered. Damn I must have done a number on you.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Liam responds, “this isn’t even about you. It’s about me and how I can’t seem to get my act together long enough for anything to happen between us besides a drunken make out sessions here or there. .”

“You are so stupid,” Louis says hitting Liam in the back of the head. Liam turns to him and gives him the classic confused puppy dog look.

“What was that for?”

“You’re an idiot and I really want to kiss you right now.” Liam confused look turns into a smile.

“Then why do you?” Liam teases.

Louis promptly grabs onto Liam wrapping both of his hands around Liam’s lower torso. He gets on his tiptoes so he stands eye to eye and leans in a little hoping Liam knows to meet him half way. Liam seems to take the hint and goes in for the kiss. The only problem is Liam can’t seem to figure out just what to do with his hands, but to be honest Louis couldn’t care less right now. The two guys for a few minutes before Liam pulls away.

“Why’d you stop?” Louis asks, a curious expression slipping across his face. Louis looks up at Liam to find the taller male looking pretty embarrassed.

“Um, we might have a problem here,” Liam manages to stammer out. Louis follows Liam’s downward to what he is starring at and now he understands what Liam is referring to. Liam has a big fat boner that needs to be taken care of.

“That’s not a problem, I can take care of that for you if you want.” Louis offers.

“I mean I guess,” Liam says timidly, still avoiding Louis’ gaze in favor of starring at the ground instead. Louis senses what’s going on.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?” Louis asks knowingly, “You’ve never been with a guy, have you?”

“No, not really,” Liam concedes.

“Well I’m an expert, “Louis jokes, “But in all honesty, I can just show you what to do, just follow my lead.”

“I never doubted you were but thanks for confirming it,” Liam sounds amused, “So how is this going to work anyway because I’d really like to get this situation taken care of.” Liam says motioning to his crotch.

“For starters, do you have any lube?” Louis asks, despite the fact that he has already headed for the dresser.”

“It’s not in there,” Liam says, stopping Louis in his tracks. Louis turns around to face Liam.

“Okay, then where is it?”

“Try the closest, I think the bottle you gave me for Christmas is still in there and we might as well put it to good use,” Liam jokes. Louis looks at Liam’s smiling face, he looks so proud of himself. And all Louis can think is he’s chosen a good person to fall in love with. It doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if this is like every other hook up between them and nothing comes of this. It doesn’t matter if he wakes up tomorrow and Liam is gone because for tonight Louis is sure he’s fallen in love with the best person. This is his best possible outcome.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Louis wakes up in the morning to an empty bed. He should have known that Liam would be gone in the morning. They’re not supposed to work and it doesn’t matter how much the cards fall in the right place, him and Liam will never work. Right as Louis finishes his internal monologue Liam walks through the door.

“I thought you left.” Louis admits.

“To be honest, I considered leaving, but I couldn’t do it. I want to run away so badly. There’s this gnawing voice in the back of my head telling me we won’t work and to give up. Everyone tells me that we won’t work, but yet I’m still here."

“Who is this everyone?”

“My therapist mostly, but my mother won’t stop telling how Sophia and I were the perfect couple and it’s a shame I gave up on us.”

"Listen to me Liam, I don’t care what your therapist says or the paps or Ruth or Harry or fucking anyone say. They don't know about us. They don't know about the up all nights, they don't know about the waiting all my life-" Liam cuts Louis off.

"Did you really just quote one of our songs?" Liam asks amused.

"Fuck yeah, They Don't Know about Us best explained my point and they're my words to begin with anyway."

"Yours, Harry's and like three other people."

"Not important Liam. My point is that none of them know us like we do. We don't seem like we work on paper but in real life we kind of make sense."

"We don't though, not really."

"Liam, I want to be with you, you want to be with me. What more is there? You care about me, right?"

"Of course, I care about you, but that doesn't change the fact that we don't work, we don't make sense. Lou see this from my perspective, do you actually think we could work?"

"Liam, be honest with me, do you want this? Because if you don't, it doesn't fucking matter how either of us feels or if we'll work. It doesn't fucking matter. So do you want it to matter?" Louis yells at the top of his lungs.

"Yes, I want this. Yes I want this to matter. I want us to work, but quite honestly at this moment I couldn't care less if it does. All I know is I want you Louis William Tomlinson."

"Then just stop thinking and be with me. I wasn't going to say this because I didn’t want to scare you off, but I've loved you since the X-factor and although I could imagine my life without you, it involves me strung out somewhere in Manchester and I don't want that. So honestly, I don't care if you love me back, at this point I just want you to stick around. "

"Why wouldn't I stick around? Regardless of what becomes of us you are still one of my best friends and I want you to stay in my life. "

"But things change," Louis screeches at the top of his lungs, "You claim you'll stick around now, but eventually one direction will be over and you'll probably have a family and then will I still matter? I don't want to sound like the same insecure kid you met at the X-factor who never tried hard enough because he was afraid to fail because I'm not that person anymore. But I can't continue to love you knowing that one day you will leave."

"Lou I can tell you for certain that I'm not leaving you. I would follow you just about anywhere and if that doesn't show you how I feel then you really are as dense as you claim to be. I'm here for the long haul and nothing is changing that."

"So Liam James Payne, are you all in?"

"Yes I'm all in."


End file.
